Hawking With Golden Eagles

Hawking with Golden Eagles paints a vivid picture of the eagle experience and takes the reader into the skies on a hunt for quarry. Based on practical field experience, this breakthrough book gives a full account of training and hunting procedures, and takes a close look at the quarries a golden eagle can currently be flown to. Full of breathtaking photographs and insightful description, the book is sure to be enjoyed by anyone wishing to explore the eagle's role within falconry throughout the centuries. My purpose in writing this small book is to try to give an insight into hawking with golden eagles. These raptors have frequently been described in less-than-glowing terms and their value as modern day falconry birds questioned. This book will attempt to paint a more positive picture. Naturally, when flown under unsuitable conditions and handled by inexperienced falconers, golden eagles will give a poor account of themselves. But, if trained and flown correctly, these eagles can be employed very effectively by the contemporary falconer and provide him with a unique hawking experience. My own understanding and appreciation of the golden eagle owes little to my early British falconry background. Far more influential have been my central European experiences. I have spent a good deal of time living and hawking on the Continent. There, my involvement with three large falconry center has resulted in me being presented with opportunities seldom afforded the private individual; and, with Germany or Austria serving as a base, I have traveled widely and hunted with golden eagles in many different parts of Europe. In writing this book, I have assumed that those interested in hawking with golden eagles will already have a background of experience with birds such as goshawks, Harris' hawks, or red-tailed hawks. Let me stress that a golden eagle is definitely no bird for a novice falconer. With this in mind, I deemed it unnecessary to cover very basic falconry topics in any detail. Comments on the more rudimentary aspect of the sport have been restricted to where I feel they are truly required. I have written very much with the practicing falconer in mind. However, I have also tried to produce a text that will be found readable and informative by those perhaps not directly involved in practical falconry, but who have an interest in some related topic. It is hoped that this book will be of value to anyone keen to discover just what these magnificent birds are capable of as trained hunting allies.

The Limited Edition is limited to 50 signed and numbered copies. Each is leather-bound and comes in a slipcase covered with bonded leather. The spine has five hubs (horizontal ridges beneath the leather to simulate the bundles of thread that, in medieval times, were used to sew signatures together). An eagle feather was hand-painted on the spine. An original watercolor painting of an eagle's head accompanies each copy (and is removable for framing). The pages are guilt-edged, and a medallion (of fine zinc plated with copper, then nickel, then gold) of an eagle in flight is embossed into the leather cover of the book. The medallion was sculpted by the noted artist, Mark Rossi, especially for the book. Because the painted feather and the painted eagle head (both by Dr. Ellis), are each unique, each copy is also unique.

Limited Edition includes a signed print by the author of only 150 copies. The hawk feels like a bundle of nerves, head snapping this way and that, muscles contracting with the sound of each snapping twig. At such times, I sense her energy flowing into my hand, up my arm and into my core. Engulfed in the moment, I am no longer an onlooker; I become a predator - the hawk and I hunting as one. When at last a duck suddenly erupts from cover, my body responds with a burst of adrenaline as the hawk explodes of my fist. In that instant, my heart leaps and my spirit flies with the hawk as she fulfills her predatory role. For centuries, people from all walks of life have felt the thrill of hunting with birds of prey. 'Duck Hawking and the Art of Falconry' explores the exhilarating branch of hawking that takes the falconer out to the ponds in pursuit of waterfowl. While duck hawking is a major facet of falconry, it has been highly overlooked in the annals of raptor literature. Author Joe Roy has decades of personal experience with which to create a work devoted to hunting waterfowl with hawks and falcons. This singularly comprehensive treatise celebrates the art of duck hawking. Writing in an entertaining, narrative style, the author presents personal anecdotes to proffer examples and illustrate meaning. Within the pages lie a wealth of practical information covering such topics as training techniques, slip selections, use of thermals, working with hunting dogs, weight management and flight orchestration. Full of stunning photographs, this volume is destined to become the duck hawker's ultimate handbook.

Martin Hollinshead brings his wealth of experience and expertise to the topic of hunting mammalian quarry with Goshawks, Buteos, and Golden Eagles.

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to the art of hawking, with information on training, game-hawking, equipment, care and management, nutrition, handling, history, and much more. Based on the author's thirty years hawking experience, this timeless manual contains everything a beginner might need to know on the subject, and will also include information of value to those with more experience. Contents include: "History and Literature", "The Birds Used in Hawking", "Furniture and Fittings", "Eyesses and Hack Hawks", "Passage Hawks", "Training and Entering", "Rook-Hawking", "Game-Hawking", "Lark-Hawking", "Gulls, Heron, Kite, Duck", "The Goshawk", et cetera. Many vintage texts such as this, especially those dating back to the 1900s and before, are increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on falconry.

This lavishly illustrated encyclopedia contains some 1,500 terms and idioms, related to or connected with falconry, with explanations, derivations and notes. It is illustrated with photographs, figures, and reproductions of antiquarian prints and is believed to be the first attempt to catalog and review the complete language of falconry as used between the later Middle Ages and the present day. The Encyclopedia of Falconry will be a valuable addition to all reference collections by uniquely covering a subject with a long and distinguished history.

The Archaeology of Wild Birds in Britain and Ireland tells the story of human engagement with birds from the end of the last Ice Age to about AD 1650. It is based on archaeological bird remains integrated with ethnography and the history of birds and avian biology. In addition to their food value, the book examines birds in ritual activities and their capture and role in falconry and as companion animals. It is an essential guide for archaeologists and zooarchaeologists and will interest historians and naturalists concerned with the history and former distribution of birds.